Rayhall Nabs Prototype Lites Pole

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – “Bigger is always better” seemed to be the motto of the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda series today, as the largest field of competitors thus far this season focused on pushing their Mazda powered Élan DP02 entries to the limit today as they qualified on the longest road course they face this race season at the historic Road America circuit.

Ultimately, 21 prototypes found their pace today on the 4.048, 14-turn road course to set their positions for Rounds 9 and 10 of Series competition, but it was current points leader Sean Rayhall with Comprent Motor Sports that ultimately captured the Cooper Tires Pole Award and a new qualifying lap record in the 30-minute session.

“It’s a true pleasure today to be on the Pole in the Prototype Lites division,” said the 18-year-old Rayhall. “We’ve struggled all week, and my Comprent Motor Sports guys busted their tails right before that session and we changed everything in the book. I really can’t emphasize how much I appreciate them working for me like that, because we were really out of the ballpark before that. It’s really good to have the No. 14 Robert Talbott Mazda on the Pole. Looking forward to racing here at Road America, it’s another pole for us but as we’ve seen in the past we know qualifying doesn’t matter. Ryan (Booth) is really, really close to us and I think it’s going to be a good race. There’s a lot of hot competition here so I’m just ready for the next rounds of the Cooper Tires Lites Series.”

And “really, really close” was not an understatement as Ryan Booth and Performance Tech racing kept the pressure on Rayhall the entire session with consistent lap times and speeds that were a mere fraction off of Rayhall’s record breaking lap time of 2:04.990.

The two are still within sight of one another in the points championship with only 26 points separating them at the halfway point this season.

“Sean (Rayhall) just got me by just a little bit,” Booth said. “It seems to be going that way all year. But qualifying doesn’t really matter. Now it’s just focus on the race and get a good setup for the race and hopefully we can come out with the win.”

SPEEDSPORT.com is America's Trusted Motorsports Authority. Since 1934, SPEED SPORT has been the destination for all things motorsports news...from NASCAR to Formula 1, Sprint Cars to Top Fuel dragsters, Supercross to Superbikes.